McDonald closes in on 200(ish) NWSL Appearances
Courtesy David Mucker
The next time Jessica McDonald steps on the pitch in a Louisville jersey, it will be her 200th competitive appearances in the NWSL (according to me and possibly only me). Jess’s storied career has made stops in 7 cities (6 clubs: Red Stars, Reign, Thorns, Dash, Flash/Courage, and Louisville). There is a little debate about how to count NWSL appearances, but I stick to the rule that is there is something on the line, it counts. Oddly enough, the matches that tend to get omitted in the count are the playoff ones. Regardless, here is the math. Jess has appeared in:
179 League matches
10 Challenge Cup matches
10 playoff matches
I believe that NWSL will celebrate her 200 appearances in a few months once the league number hits 190 matches. Nobody reads this blog, but in case they do please don’t get mad at the league or club if they wait a while to celebrate McDonald.
On the eve of her 200th appearance by my count at least, I got the chance to talk with McDonald for a few minutes while the club was preparing for its home opener vs. the Washington Spirit.
Pre-NWSL Professional
McDonald was drafted by the WPS version of the Chicago Red Stars and spent time in the A-League before the NWSL was even a league. I asked her about her initial professional experience.
“It was a little scarier then because I was just a rookie in the WPS. I had gotten drafted by the Chicago Red Stars, and I am playing with Kate Markgraf, Megan Rapinoe, and Cristiane. My team was stacked, and I had some legends on my team. Obviously stepping in it was a little intimidating, but everyone welcomed me with open arms, so I was able to ease into that season pretty smoothly. At first it was definitely nerve wracking. I was just this youngster just trying to learn from the best at that point in my career. The transition of having the pro experience playing the WPS and also playing the W League in Australia before the NWSL came about made the transition much smoother because I knew exactly what to expect.”
179 NWSL League Appearances
The NWSL regular season is and always has been a grind. For McDonald, last season proved a particularly challenging one for her for a few reasons. Ninth place was the lowest that McDonald had ever finished in the table and at times she was the only true NWSL veteran on the pitch which meant that she felt the burden of tough season probably more than anyone else on the team. To help recover, instead of taking a well deserved break McDonald returned to Australia. I asked her why she made that decision.
“The reason why it was an easy decision for me to go down to Australia again was to gain some confidence. I lacked a lot of confidence last season and that's never happened to me before, so I needed to get somewhat of a boost and have fun and fall in love with the game again.”
If you watched the opener vs. Houston, you saw a refreshed player that almost scored a terrific first-touch goal.
“Hurt my pride a little bit on that one when it was touched by Jane (Campbell). What a great goal that would have been.”
Since there have been so many league matches in her career, I asked if one stood out. She picked a 2014 match against the Boston Breakers because it contained a very memorable goal for her.
“One of my favorite goals happened in 2014 playing for Portland Thorns and we were playing against Boston Breakers at the time in Portland. It was my 14th career goal in the NWSL. I will never forget because the buildup was just one of my favorites.”
10 NWSL Challenge Cup Appearances
Cup matches in the NWSL didn’t exist until 2020 and were really created out of necessity more than anything else. There was also a Fall Series in 2020, for which Jess opted out. 2020 was a tough year for everyone, so asked her about that first cup experience.
“2020 was weird coming in from Olympic qualifiers and the She Believes Cup. When preseason happens, I'm transitioning into NC Courage, and then all of a sudden everything just shut down. It was almost refreshing when everything shut down for me, because I was actually able to take a physical break and at the time I was juggling club and country, which was a lot. I was able to rest my body a little bit, but then they're like, ‘Hey, we're going to play the Challenge Cup in Utah. We're going to be in this bubble. We're supporting moms. You can bring whoever you want in and we'll take care of you.” I'm like, let's do it. I was actually really excited about the challenge. It didn't fall our way when I was with the Courage at the time (ed: the Courage won all four preliminary matches and was top of the table but lost in the quarterfinals to Portland) but honestly, it was a very interesting experience.”
On the bright side, it let her spend more time with her son, Jeremiah.
“I opted out of the Fall Series just to kind of have a mental and another physical break because I knew at some point things are going to open up again. I was able to spend time with my kid, quality time that I really hadn't gotten since he was a baby. Those are times that we're going to remember together. He was being home schooled at the time. That was a refreshing bonding time that my kid and I had. I wasn't just ‘Mom’, I was also his teacher, which was kind of crazy. It was just good quality time with my kid and that was the most important thing.”
10 NWSL Playoff Appearances
McDonald is a 3-time NWSL Champion with the Flash/Courage franchise and was the 2018 Championship MVP with the Courage scoring a brace. As Jess hopes to add to her playoff appearances this season with Louisville, I asked her about her most memorable match beside the MVP performance:
“Playing at home for the championship in 2019 in North Carolina, just winning a championship at home really hit home for all of as a squad. It was an incredible season for us and winning 4-0 against Chicago Red Stars, pretty much our rivals at the time was just the cherry on top. Being able to win a championship at home, not a lot of people can say that.”
I want to thank Jessica for spending a few minutes with me and congratulate her on her upcoming 200th* NWSL appearance.
